FAQ

A. Yes! As anti-virus and other security programs continue to evolve they often use more generic signatures or heuristic-based detection to search for threats. This sometimes causes false positives. If a false positive is detected when scanning our software certain program files or DLLs might be removed or quarantined. If you are running any sort of security program you might need to create an exception for our programs or DLLs if they are flagged in such a manner.

Since there are so many different security programs, and because they vary greatly, we cannot explain how to create an exception for each product. You will need to determine which security programs you are running and then you will need to find out how to create exceptions when needed. We recommend that you do a search of the Internet similar to this: "how to create an exception with AVG Antivirus" (of course, substitue the name of your security tool for "AVG Antivirus" in the search string).

Important - You may need to reinstall our software after defining your exceptions.

No knowledge of the Strat-O-Matic board game is necessary in order to enjoy our computer game. Of course, if you do have previous experience in playing the board game you will have a head start, but everything that is needed to understand and enjoy the computer game is included with your purchase.

Our software is Window 7 and Window 7 64 bit compatible. However, please check the notes below that pertain to the Windows Vista operating system.
***IMPORTANT*** DO NOT INSTALL THE GAME TO THE “PROGRAM FILES” FOLDER IN VISTA OR WINDOWS 7! Vista and Windows 7 do not allow you to write data to this folder (instead it uses a virtual folder when you try to write data there). Besides being confusing, this causes problems with our game.
The game must be installed with a user sign-on that has administrator privileges. This will allow the DLLs to be registered properly.
Also, when installing you might see an “Unknown Publisher” warning message. If so, you should click “Run” to proceed.
Vista™ no longer supports Winhelp, which our program uses. You can download the Winhelp viewer for Vista™ at the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=258aa5ec-e3d9-4228-8844-008e02b32a2c

Strat-O-Matic Computer Baseball is a multifaceted game with many options and features. If you are new to the world of Strat-O-Matic and just want to get started quickly you should follow these steps:

1. If you wish to play with the cards (this game may be played with or without the Strat-O-Matic baseball cards), you must understand the ratings system. Even if you don’t plan to use the cards, you will probably want to understand the ratings system employed by the game. Without the cards, we recommend that you use the highest level of all the rules (this is Maximum or Super-Advanced, depending on the category). With the cards you might want to start at the Advanced level until you become acquainted with how the game plays, and then you can proceed to the highest level of rules.

2. If you are playing a non-league game, no stats will be saved. When you play your first league game you will be able to view statistics.

3. You can accept the defaults for most of the items shown in the menus when you start a game. Items that you need to decide include your selection of playing league or non-league games (note that all scheduled games are considered league games), DH or NO DH, and if you wish to play with or without cards.

4. Don’t worry about messing things up! You can always re-install the software. Also each season individually can be restarted, which simply erases all statistics accumulated to date for that league.

After installing a program or add-on the game will automatically prompt you for an authorization code the first time you try to use that game or add-on. When the screen request comes up, make sure you are online, then simply enter your code into the box and click the OK button to complete your activation.

Your game menu will have 2 choices, Remove Game Authorization or Remove Other Authorizations. When removing your codes you should always remove your add-on authorizations first, then your game authorization last.

To Remove Other Authorizations click the menu choice, select the authorization from the list and click the remove button. Enter or verify your product code and click OK. Repeat this step for each add-on product that you have installed and need to remove.

To Remove Game Authorization click the menu choice and enter or verify your product code and click OK.

Our activation system allows you to actively install a product on only one computer at any time. You can remove and transfer your authorizations as often as you need to but you can only have it active with one computer at a time.

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you access a game or add-on for the first time the program will request your authorization code, enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your User Code and the URL of the activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and you will need to enter your product code and user code to submit. Once submitted you will receive an activation code back, write this code down and take it back to your Manual Transfer screen and enter it into the box there to complete your activation manually.

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you click on either the Remove Authorization menu option, enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your Removal Code and the URL of the de-activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and you will need to enter your product code and removal code to submit. Once submitted your authorization will be removed completely.

Note: Even though your game screen will note that the authorization has been removed successfully, the removal process will not be complete until your go to the deactivation web page and complete the process.

Yes, some products may be activated by product code or by one of our older floppy product disks. If this option is available, you will see a button labeled “Diskette Transfer” on the Authorization window. If you have a disk product, click the Diskette Transfer button and the game will prompt you to insert your floppy disk.

Note: If your floppy disks no longer work, or you have a computer with no floppy drive, then here is our Disk Exchange Policy: If you have an old 3.5” season diskette that fails you can exchange it for a Product Code card for a $2 replacement fee, per diskette. Mail back the diskette(s) and enclose $2 per diskette. We will ship back to you the replacement Product Code card(s).

As of 12/31/2010 this program has closed and we are no longer accepting disk exchanges

Unfortunately, the registration card is your record of the product code. Both the documentation and registration card itself explain that you should protect that card; it is the only record of your registration.

If the registration card has been physically lost, a replacement registration code would need to be purchased. Please contact the company at 1-800-645-3455 to inquire about replacement product codes.

Should you receive this error message you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

If you have lost an authorization due to hard drive failure and you are not able to play the game (or seasons) then you will need to contact Technical Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset. They will help you get back up and running.

Invalid product code means that you are either entering a code for a different product than requested, or you have entered your code incorrectly. Verify which code the game screen is requesting. If you have the right code, you should verify the letters and numbers within the product code. All SOM product codes are 16 characters and have 7 letters and 9 numbers.

A firewall/security program is interfering with the transfer of the registration information. You should temporarily shut off the program to complete the registration process. If you are unable to turn off your firewall/security software, you will need to use the Manual Transfer registration process to work around this issue.

Should you receive an Authorization Corrupted message you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

During the initial game installation you may have selected the checkbox for Optional Color Ballparks. If so, this add-on product requires a separate purchase to activate and use. If you wish to have this feature you can purchase the Color Ballparks from Strat-O-Matic and you will receive a product code to unlock that feature.

If you do not wish to purchase the color ballparks you will need to remove those files to proceed. Unfortunately, there is no easy or automatic way to uninstall the color ballpark files. You need to do this manually by going to the CDROMBB game folder and opening up the DATA folder. This is where the ballpark files are installed. You will see a number of files with BP then a number like BP000. These are the black and white files – leave them alone. You will also see the color files which will have a D or an N after the name, for example BP000D or BP000N. These D and N files need to be deleted. Once they have been removed, you will not get the color stadium authorization request and the game will use the default black-and-white ballparks.

Optional ballparks are installed as part of the main game installation screen. Insert your game CD-ROM and run the setup.exe as if you are going to install the entire game again. When you get to the install screen with the checkbox selections, only check off the box for the optional ballparks you wish to install.

The oldtimer ballparks require a number assignment to the team that will be using that ballpark graphic. Click on or highlight the team in question, go to the Team menu and select Update Ballpark Info. The second field on the screen will be the ballpark Code #. Type the ballpark’s respective code number here.

Note: ballpark code lists can be found under the Help menu. Click the Index button and search the alphabetical index for “Ballpark Codes.”

To install additional season rosters insert your game CD-ROM. Open the program and go to the League menu and select Install Rosters from CD-ROM. A screen will appear listing all of the available rosters. Scroll down to the roster you wish to install, highlight it and click the Install button

Make sure that you have the View Card Images turned on. Go to Options, then Dice/Cards/Splits and make sure to check off the box “Show Cards In Notebook.”

Note: Older game versions may have also had a check box for Show Cards on Game Screen but that no longer applies. With the newer graphic interface, the card image is now always available on the game screen.

As-Played season rosters are now included as part of the roster install screen. Put in your game CD-Rom and go to the League menu and select Install Rosters from CD-ROM. As the rosters are listed on the install screen, many will have a second choice for “Updated-As-Played.” If you wish to play in the As-Played mode with actual transactions and lineups, select this version of the roster to install.

After your season is complete, you can create a playoff league by highlighting your league and then selecting your playoff teams on screen. To select multiple teams, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard as you click each team. Once all of your playoff teams are highlighted go to the League menu and select Create Playoff League.

Click on and highlight your league and go to the League menu and select Schedule Maintenance. The lower left corner of the screen should have a button labeled “Generate.” Click this button and fill in the schedule parameters.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To copy a player or team from one league to another, select the player or team with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the league you wish to copy them to on your league list.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To trade a player from one team to another select the player with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the team you wish to trade them to on your team list.

The multi-team player file has a maximum amount of transactions it can hold. This limit is rarely if ever exceeded by actual in-season trades. Very often, when you create a league you might have failed to restart the league before you began play and many of the 75 transactions took place setting up your rosters before the season began.

Unfortunately, there is no way around this maximum limit in solitaire leagues. In multi-player leagues, you can use the Rebuild League function if you have all of your game results files saved.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To release a player or select the player with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the Free Agents at the top of your team list.

Some Strat-O-Matic rosters will contain “nameless players.” We were prohibited from using the names of these players due to licensing restrictions. By default we give the player a coded initial name (for example, Y.A.). You can edit a player’s name by clicking on and highlighting the player, then go to the Player menu and select the Update Player function.

Note: You cannot edit a player’s name once a season has started. If you need to edit a player’s name, you would need to restart your league.

You can edit a player’s card by clicking on and highlighting the player, going to the Player menu and selecting Update Player. Use the drop down menu to edit stats, ratings or actual card result readings.

This error indicates a problem with your DAO module used for data basing. Please open and print the readme.txt file found inside the DAO folder on your game CD-ROM. This will contain directions for installing and updating your DAO module.

Some printers may have trouble reading the PRT Print file format on our reports. If you are having trouble, go to Options, then Miscellaneous, and check off the box for “Also save print files as HTML.” Since HTML is the same format as a webpage, you should have no issues printing your reports in the HTML format.

Fatal Error 54 means you have an incomplete or missing team manager file. This usually occurs in custom leagues that have not been set up fully or in a stock league where roster moves or trades were made. Check the Update Computer Manager and Update Default Lineup settings of the teams in question and make sure they are completely set up with no missing spots in their default lineups or default pitching rotation.

Fatal Error 37 can occur when you have players with duplicate first initial last names (for example Reggie and Ron Jackson) on a roster. This situation can mess up the team stats database and cause an error. If you have a roster situation like this, you should edit the last name of one of the players by adding an * to the end of the name.

This error can also occur due to corrupted league files. Double check your rosters and see if there are any duplicate players. If not, you likely have a data corruption.

In either case, there is usually no way to repair the data. You should restore a league backup file or restart your league to correct the issue.

If you are experiencing font problems, first select another font. If that does not work, then contact your video-card vendor and make sure you have the latest device drivers installed. This is especially important if you have upgraded your operating system. Some font problems have been reported, but have not been able to be duplicated. A handful of people have reported fonts being too large on the screens in their game. Check to see that your fonts are standard Windows fonts and have not been changed. For example, you may be using a larger font if you have a large monitor. If they can be resized you should make your fonts smaller.

Another problem is the DPI setting. Our game supports the standard DPI setting. If you use “large-size DPI” then certain text elements might get clipped.

In order to hold a draft or to redraft the players in a league, you must follow several simple steps. First, you must Create New League. Second, you must copy the players that you wish to draft into your new league. Third, you must use the Release Players to free agency function. You are now ready to create your teams and then draft, using the Draft-O-Matic function.

IMPORTANT NOTE: After your draft has been completed you will need to define computer managers for each team, create a schedule and restart the league before beginning league play.

The ability to host a game in Netplay is dependent on two items: giving your opponent the correct IP address to connect to and having your host computer free of any firewall/security measures that might block your opponent from connecting to you. In addition, if you use a wireless router you will need to set up our port-forwarding properly.

There are three possible firewall/security measures that you might need to disable or configure to properly host a Netplay game:

Windows Firewall. If you have XP or Vista, there is a Windows Firewall available that needs to be turned off. To turn off your Windows Firewall, go to the Control Panel, Network and Internet and you should find an option to access the Windows Firewall there.

3rd Party Software Firewalls. Any software firewalls like Norton Security, McAfee Security and Zone Alarm, etc. need to be disabled or turned off. Open your respective software and follow directions for disabling or exiting that software.

Hardware Firewalls. Any Wired/Wireless router and some combination modem/routers will have hardware firewalls built into them. These cannot be disabled or shut off. You will need to contact the manufacturer of your hardware and inquire about Port Forwarding. You need to Port Forward port # 6501 to allow the Netplay connection to pass through your hardware firewall security.

Wireless Routers can cause difficulty in playing all PC-based internet games. That is because when a message is sent to your game from your opponent’s machine it gets delivered to the wireless router, which then needs to forward it on to your PC. The mechanism to do this is called “port forwarding.” Every router has its own instructions for defining port forwarding, so the particular method of doing this for any given router is beyond the scope of the technical support that we offer. However, there are good resources available on the internet that will help guide you through the process of setting up port forwarding for you router. We recommend that you visit http://portforward.com to determine the steps to set up your wireless router for Netplay.

The only way around this is to use the “Generate Computer Manager” function (located in the Team menu). This will completely overwrite your computer manager with a new generated one and in the process the password will be shut off.

Skincrafter refers to the graphics interface and graphics skins that we use in the program. If you want to try to turn the skinning off on the older computer, go to the main game install Strat-O-Matic baseball folder, find the file named SOMBB.INI, and open it. The ini file is a configuration file that has a bunch of settings. Scroll down and you should see a line that says “DontSkin=0.” Change this to “DontSkin=1” and then click File and Save. This should shut off the skin graphics. If your machine is having an issue with that, it should then be able to load the game.

Player pictures can easily be assigned for each player. These pictures can appear during the game (see Game Screen Layout Options), and will also appear in the player's notebook.

To assign a player picture you simply need to place his picture in the appropriate folder:

For batters - put the pictures in Player\Batters folder (located inside the game folder). For pitchers - put the pictures in the Player\Pitchers folder.

The file name should have an underscore between the first and last name. For example, a picture for Alex Rodriguez could have the name: "Alex_Rodriguez.jpg"

The player image must be 90 wide by 135 high. The file format and extension name should be .jpg or .bmp. We recommend jpg format because this will save space on your hard drive, especially if you are using a large number of player pictures.

In some cases you might have two batters or two pitchers with the same first and last name. In that case you can use the "alias.txt" file to allow for separate pictures for each player. An example is shown in the "alias.txt" file that is shipped with the game. Sandy Alomar Jr. was called "Sandy Alomar" from 1990 to 1999 on the Strat-O-Matic disks. Of course this might confuse him with his father who went by the same name on Strat-O-Matic disks. The example "alias.txt" file shows how to make the program look for "Sandy Alomar Jr." as the picture file name instead of looking for "Sandy Alomar". That way you can have separate pictures - "Sandy Alomar" for the father's picture and "Sandy Alomar Jr." for the son's picture.

The program will strip all periods out of the names before creating the file name to be searched for. As an example, "Sandy Alomar Jr." has the period stripped out to make "Sandy Alomar Jr". Then all spaces are converted to underscores to make "Sandy_Alomar_Jr". Then the file extension (".bmp" or ".jpg") is appended to determine the final name to be searched. In this case it would be "Sandy_Alomar_Jr.bmp" or "Sandy_Alomar_Jr.jpg". As another example, a jpeg picture for U.L. Washington must be named "UL_Washington.jpg" in order for the program to find it.

No, when you install a new version of the game over your older version all of your previously installed products (season rosters, ballparks, …) will automatically be recognized by the newer game version.

It is easier in this situation to just move the new game and do a normal upgrade. Backup your new league, remove your authorizations for the newer version of the game and then install your new game like a normal upgrade install over the older version. It is easier to move one new item instead of all your older ones.

A. Yes! As anti-virus and other security programs continue to evolve they often use more generic signatures or heuristic-based detection to search for threats. This sometimes causes false positives. If a false positive is detected when scanning our software certain program files or DLLs might be removed or quarantined. If you are running any sort of security program you might need to create an exception for our programs or DLLs if they are flagged in such a manner.

Since there are so many different security programs, and because they vary greatly, we cannot explain how to create an exception for each product. You will need to determine which security programs you are running and then you will need to find out how to create exceptions when needed. We recommend that you do a search of the Internet similar to this: "how to create an exception with AVG Antivirus" (of course, substitue the name of your security tool for "AVG Antivirus" in the search string).

Important - You may need to reinstall our software after defining your exceptions.

No knowledge of the Strat-O-Matic board game is necessary in order to enjoy our computer game. Of course, if you do have previous experience in playing the board game you will have a head start. But everything that is needed to understand and enjoy the computer game is included with your purchase.

Our software is Window 7 and Window 7 64 bit compatible. However, please check the notes below that pertain to the Windows Vista operating system.
***IMPORTANT*** DO NOT INSTALL THE GAME TO THE “PROGRAM FILES” FOLDER IN VISTA OR WINDOWS 7! Vista and Windows 7 do not allow you to write data to this folder (instead it uses a virtual folder when you try to write data there). Besides being confusing, this causes problems with our game.
The game must be installed with a user sign-on that has administrator privileges. This will allow the DLLs to be registered properly.
Also, when installing you might see an “Unknown Publisher” warning message. If so, you should click “Run” to proceed.
Vista™ no longer supports Winhelp, which our program uses. You can download the Winhelp viewer for Vista™ at the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148
Windows 7™ no longer supports Winhelp, which our program uses. You can download the Winhelp viewer for Windows 7™ at the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=258aa5ec-e3d9-4228-8844-008e02b32a2c

After installing a program or add-on, the game will automatically prompt you for an authorization code the first time you try to use that game or add-on. When the screen request comes up, make sure you are online, then simply enter your code into the box and click the OK button to complete your activation.

Your League Manager menu will have 2 choices, Remove Game Authorization or Remove Season Authorizations. When removing your codes, you should always remove your add-on authorizations first, then your game authorization last.

To Remove Season Authorizations, click the menu choice, type in the season year and click the remove button. Enter or your product code and click OK. Repeat this step for each add-on product that you have installed and need to remove.

To Remove Game Authorization, click the menu choice and enter your product code and click OK.

Our activation system allows you to actively install a product on only one computer at any time. You can remove and transfer your authorizations as often as you need to, but you can only have it active with one computer at a time.

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you access a game or add-on for the first time, the program will request your authorization code. Enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your User Code and the URL of the activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and you will need to enter your product code and user code to submit. Once submitted, you will receive an activation code back. Write this code down, take it back to your Manual Transfer screen and enter it into the box there to complete your activation manually.

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you click on either the Remove Authorization menu option, enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your Removal Code and the URL of the de-activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and you will need to enter your product code and removal code to submit. Once submitted, your authorization will be removed completely.

Note: Even though your game screen will note that the authorization has been removed successfully, the removal process will not be complete until your go to the deactivation webpage and complete the process.

If you are using the Manual Transfer registration procedure, your user, activation and removal codes are all temporary numbers. Do not save these codes for future use. Each time you install a product, new user, activation and removal codes will be generated. The only code that will never change is the actual product code from your registration card.

Note: Each product will have unique user codes. If you are installing multiple products (for example a game plus season rosters) you must complete the Manual Transfer step for each product. Each product will have a unique user, activation or removal code.

Yes, some products may be activated by product code or by one of our older floppy product disks. If this option is available, you will see a button labeled “Diskette Transfer” on the Authorization window. If you have a disk product, click the Diskette Transfer button and the game will prompt you to insert your floppy disk.

Note: If your floppy disks no longer work, or you have a computer with no floppy drive, then here is our Disk Exchange Policy: If you have an old 3.5” season diskette that fails you can exchange it for a Product Code card for a $2 replacement fee, per diskette. Mail back the diskette(s) and enclose $2 per diskette. We will ship back to you the replacement Product Code card(s).

As of 12/31/2010 this program has closed and we are no longer accepting disk exchanges

Unfortunately, the registration card is your record of the product code. Both the documentation and registration card itself explain that you should protect that card. It is the only record of your registration.

If the registration card has been physically lost, a replacement registration code would need to be purchased. Please contact the company at 1-800-645-3455 to inquire about replacement product codes.

Should you receive this error message you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

If you have lost an authorization due to hard drive failure and you are not able to play the game (or seasons), then you will need to contact Technical Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset. They will help you get back up and running.

Invalid product code means that you are either entering a code for a different product than requested, or you have entered your code incorrectly. Verify which code the game screen is requesting. If you have the right code you should verify the letters and numbers within the product code. All SOM product codes are 16 characters and have 7 letters and 9 numbers.

A firewall/security program is interfering with the transfer of the registration information. You should temporarily shutoff the program to complete the registration process. If you are unable to turn off your firewall/security software, you will need to use the Manual Transfer registration process to work around this issue.

Should you receive an Authorization Corrupted message you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

To install additional season rosters insert your game CD-ROM and run the main installation program. On the main install screen where you can install the game, you will also find a series of buttons and checkboxes which will allow you to select any add-on season rosters for installation.

The problem is the Windows DPI setting. Our game supports the standard DPI setting. If you use “large size DPI” then certain text elements might get clipped and not display properly. Go to your Display Control Panel in Windows and set your DPI to “Normal” or 96 DPI.

Some displays may have difficulty with our Coin Toss animation graphics, which come on at the launch of the game screen. If you are experiencing crashes at this point, you need to go to the games install folder (default is Strat-O-Matic Football) and open and edit the SOMFBRULES.INI file. Inside you will find a setting labeled NoCoinToss=0. You need to change this setting to NoCoinToss=1 to turn off the Coin Toss animation and eliminate the crash.

nVidia’s “nView Desktop Manager” can cause the football game to crash or to hang. nVidia says that this utility may cause some applications to stop responding (which can be the case with our football game).

To fix this, open the nVidia nView Desktop Manager control panel by choosing:
Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> nVidia nView Desktop Manager.
Then uncheck the “Enable Desktop Manager” button and click OK. If you do not
see the nVidia nView Desktop Manager applet then you do not have it installed.

From the League Manager screen, open your league and highlight a team by clicking on them. Select the Manage Team function from the Team menu and click the Manage Roster button. The Manage Roster screen will have button options to Trade a player, Release a player or Draft a player.

From the League Manager screen open your league and highlight a team by clicking on them. Select the Manage Team function from the Team menu and click the Manage Roster button. The Manage Roster screen will have button options to Trade a player, Release a player or Draft a player.

This error indicates a problem with your DAO module used for databasing. Please open and print the readme.txt file found inside the DAO folder on your game CD-ROM. This will contain directions for installing and updating your DAO module.

Some Strat-O-Matic rosters will contain “nameless players.” We are prohibited from using the names of these players due to licensing restrictions. By default we give the player the name of his position. For instance, the starting LLB on Washington for the 2003 season is one of these players. His name is listed as “Left Linebacker.” He is the only player for the 2003 season with this problem. If you wish, you can use the player notebook to correct “nameless players” and assign them their real name.

To create a custom league you can select the New function under the League menu of the League Manager screen. You need to then assign your league a name and decide if you will create your custom league using stock teams (teams can be from any season you have installed) or as a free agent draft league. You now can select the number of teams, games in schedule and conference/divisional alignment.

Once these choices have been selected, you will be given the option to select which stock teams you would like to have in your league – or, if it is a draft league, which rosters to have in your free agent pool.

Once your league is created, a league with stock teams is ready to play. A draft league can be drafted from the Manage League Rosters screen.

The ability to host a game in Netplay is dependent on two items: giving your opponent the correct IP address to connect to and having your host computer free of any firewall/security measures that might block your opponent from connecting to you. In addition, if you use a wireless router you will need to setup our port-forwarding properly.

There are three possible firewall/security measures that you might need to disable or configure to properly host a Netplay game:

Windows Firewall. If you have XP or Vista, there is a Windows Firewall available that needs to be turned off. To turn off your Windows Firewall, go to the Control Panel, Network and Internet and you should find an option to access the Windows Firewall there.

3rd Party Software Firewalls. Any software firewalls like Norton Security, McAfee Security, and Zone Alarm, etc. need to be disabled or turned off. Open your respective software and follow directions for disabling or exiting that software.

Hardware Firewalls. Any Wired/Wireless router and some combination modem/routers will have hardware firewalls built into them. These cannot be disabled or shut off. You will need to contact the manufacturer of your hardware and inquire about Port Forwarding. You need to Port Forward port # 6501 to allow the Netplay connection to pass through your hardware firewall security.

Wireless Routers can cause difficulty in playing all PC-based internet games. That is because when a message is sent to your game from your opponent’s machine it gets delivered to the wireless router, which then needs to forward it on to your PC. The mechanism to do this is called “port forwarding.” Every router has its own instructions for defining port forwarding, so the particular method of doing this for any given router is beyond the scope of the technical support that we offer. However, there are good resources available on the internet that will help guide you through the process of setting up port forwarding for you router. We recommend that visit http://portforward.com to determine the steps to setup your wireless router for Netplay.

Skincrafter refers to the graphics interface and graphics skins that we use in the program. If you want to try to turn the skinning off on the older computer, go to the main game install the Strat-O-Matic football folder, find the file named SOMFBRULES.INI and open it. The ini file is a configuration file that has a bunch of settings. Scroll about halfway down and you should see a line that says SKIN=STRATFOOTBALL.SKF. Change this line to SKIN=NONE and then click File and Save. This should shut off the skin graphics. If your machine is having an issue with that, it should then be able to load the game.

You can assign a picture to be used for a player either using the Picture button on the Player Notebook, or if you want to assign pictures to many players you can use the technique described here.

If you have set a player picture from the player notebook by pressing the Picture button, that picture will still be used and is saved in an ini file. If this has not been set, then the program will look for a picture in the following formats and in the following order:

The pictures are to be placed in the graphics\pictures folder. Each position has a default picture that is also located in this folder. The file format and extension name should be .bmp. Note: If you want to assign particular pictures for particular years you can create a folder underneath the graphics\pictures folder with the year name. For example, make a folder called graphics\pictures\2005

and place the 2005 player pictures in that folder. The game will search first the 2005 folder for the player picture. If it can't find it there then it will search the main graphics\pictures folder.

The program will change all non-alpha characters (including periods, quotes and spaces) to underscores before creating the file name to be searched for. As an example, "Y.A. Tittle" becomes "Tittle_Y_A_". Then the file extension (".bmp") is appended to determine the final name to be searched. In this case it would be "Tittle_Y_A_.bmp". As another example, Ed "Too Tall" Jones becomes "Jones_Ed__Too Tall_.bmp" (notice that there are 2 underscores after Ed, that's because both the spaces and the quotes are changed to underscores).

Notes:
1) Due to licensing restrictions pictures are not included.
2) The jpg format will only be searched for if building the yearbook, it cannot be used for the player notebook. That is why we recommend using .bmp files for football player pictures.
3) All default pictures are located in the graphics\pictures folder
4) Case does not matter.

Do to the install procedures, very difficult to do. I do not get too many situations like this and those that do I just reset instead of explaining it. You would have to remove your current activation, install the old version, remove the old activation, repeat for each version you need to recover.

It is easier in this situation to just move the new game and do a normal upgrade. Backup your new league, remove your authorizations for the newer version of the game and then install your new game like a normal upgrade install over the older version. It is easier to move one new item instead of all your older ones.

A. Yes! As anti-virus and other security programs continue to evolve they often use more generic signatures or heuristic-based detection to search for threats. This sometimes causes false positives. If a false positive is detected when scanning our software certain program files or DLLs might be removed or quarantined. If you are running any sort of security program you might need to create an exception for our programs or DLLs if they are flagged in such a manner.

Since there are so many different security programs, and because they vary greatly, we cannot explain how to create an exception for each product. You will need to determine which security programs you are running and then you will need to find out how to create exceptions when needed. We recommend that you do a search of the Internet similar to this: "how to create an exception with AVG Antivirus" (of course, substitue the name of your security tool for "AVG Antivirus" in the search string).

Important - You may need to reinstall our software after defining your exceptions.

No knowledge of the Strat-O-Matic board game is necessary in order to enjoy our computer game. Of course, if you do have previous experience in playing the board game you will have a head start. But everything that is needed to understand and enjoy the computer game is included with your purchase.

Our software is Window 7 and Window 7 64 bit compatible. However, please check the notes below that pertain to the Windows Vista operating system.
***IMPORTANT*** DO NOT INSTALL THE GAME TO THE “PROGRAM FILES” FOLDER IN VISTA OR WINDOWS 7! Vista and Windows 7 do not allow you to write data to this folder (instead it uses a virtual folder when you try to write data there). Besides being confusing, this causes problems with our game.
The game must be installed with a user sign-on that has administrator privileges. This will allow the DLLs to be registered properly.
Also, when installing you might see an “Unknown Publisher” warning message. If so, you should click “Run” to proceed.
Vista™ no longer supports Winhelp, which our program uses. You can download the Winhelp viewer for Vista™ at the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148
Windows 7™ no longer supports Winhelp, which our program uses. You can download the Winhelp viewer for Windows 7™ at the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=258aa5ec-e3d9-4228-8844-008e02b32a2c

Strat-O-Matic Computer Hockey is a multifaceted game with many options and features. If you are new to the world of Strat-O-Matic and just want to get started quickly you should follow these steps:

If you wish to play with the cards (this game may be played with or without the Strat-O-Matic hockey cards), you must understand the ratings system. Even if you don’t plan to use the cards, you will probably want to understand the ratings system employed by the game.

If you are playing a nonleague game, no stats will be saved. When you play your first league game you will be able to view statistics.

You can accept the defaults for most of the items shown in the menus when you start a game.

Don’t worry about messing things up! You can always re-install the software. Also, each season individually can be restarted, which simply erases all statistics accumulated to date for that league.

After installing a program or add-on the game will automatically prompt you for an authorization code the first time you try to use that game or add-on. When the screen request comes up, make sure you are online, then simply enter your code into the box and click the OK button to complete your activation.

Your File menu will have 2 choices, Remove Game Authorization or Remove Season Authorizations. When removing your codes, you should always remove your add-on authorizations first, then your game authorization last.

To Remove Season Authorizations click the menu choice, type in the season year and click the remove button. Enter or your product code and click OK. Repeat this step for each add-on product that you have installed and need to remove.

To Remove Game Authorization, click the menu choice and enter your product code and click OK.

Our activation system allows you to actively install a product on only one computer at any time. You can remove and transfer your authorizations as often as you need to, but you can only have it active with one computer at a time.

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you access a game or add-on for the first time, the program will request your authorization code. Enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your User Code and the URL of the activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and enter your product code and user code to submit. Once submitted, you will receive an activation code back. Write this code down and take it back to your Manual Transfer screen and enter it into the box there to complete your activation manually.

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you click on either the Remove Authorization menu option, enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your Removal Code and the URL of the de-activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and enter your product code and removal code to submit. Once submitted, your authorization will be removed completely.

Note: Even though your game screen will note that the authorization has been removed successfully, the removal process will not be complete until your go to the deactivation web page and complete the process.

If you are using the Manual Transfer registration procedure, your user, activation and removal codes are all temporary numbers. Do not save these codes for future use. Each time you install a product, new user, activation and removal codes will be generated. The only code that will never change is the actual product code from your registration card.

Note: Each product will have unique user codes. If you are installing multiple products (for example, a game plus season rosters) you must complete the Manual Transfer step for each product. Each product will have a unique user, activation or removal code.

Yes, some products may be activated by product code or by one of our older floppy product disks. If this option is available, you will see a button labeled “Diskette Transfer” on the Authorization window. If you have a disk product, click the Diskette Transfer button and the game will prompt you to insert your floppy disk.

Note: If your floppy disks no longer work, or you have a computer with no floppy drive, then here is our Disk Exchange Policy: If you have an old 3.5” season diskette that fails you can exchange it for a Product Code card for a $2 replacement fee, per diskette. Mail back the diskette(s) and enclose $2 per diskette. We will ship back to you the replacement Product Code card(s).

As of 12/31/2010 this program has closed and we are no longer accepting disk exchanges

Unfortunately, the registration card is your record of the product code. Both the documentation and registration card itself explain that you should protect that card. It is the only record of your registration.

If the registration card has been physically lost, a replacement registration code would need to be purchased. Please contact the company at 1-800-645-3455 to inquire about replacement product codes.

Should you receive this error message, you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

If you have lost an authorization due to hard drive failure and you are not able to play the game (or seasons), then you will need to contact Technical Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset. They will help you get back up and running.

Invalid product code means that you are either entering a code for a different product than requested, or you have entered your code incorrectly. Verify which code the game screen is requesting. If you have the right code, you should verify the letters and numbers within the product code. All SOM product codes are 16 characters and have 7 letters and 9 numbers.

A firewall/security program is interfering with the transfer of the registration information. You should temporarily shut off the program to complete the registration process. If you are unable to turn off your firewall/security software, you will need to use the Manual Transfer registration process to work around this issue.

Should you receive an Authorization Corrupted message, you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

To install additional season rosters, insert your game CD-ROM and run the main installation program. On the main install screen where you can install the game, you will also find a series of buttons and checkboxes which will allow you to select any add-on season rosters for installation.

You can create a postseason league by using the League menu and Create New League feature. Once you have created a new postseason league, you can copy your playoff teams from your regular league into it by using the drag and drop functionality of your mouse. The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To copy a player or team from one league to another select the player or team with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the league you wish to copy them to on your league list.

Click on and highlight your league and go to the League menu and select Schedule Maintenance. The lower right corner of the screen should have a button labeled “Generate.” Click this button and fill in the schedule parameters.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To copy a player or team from one league to another, select the player or team with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the league you wish to copy them to on your league list.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To trade a player from one team to another select the player with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the team you wish to trade them to on your team list.

The main program screen uses the drag and drop functionality of your mouse. To release a player or select the player with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the Free Agents at the top of your team list.

This error indicates a problem with your DAO module used for databasing. Please open and print the readme.txt file found inside the DAO folder on your game CD-ROM. This will contain directions for installing and updating your DAO module.

When creating a draft league there are a couple of different ways to populate the teams. If the draft league is to be comprised of players from just one season then follow these steps:

Use the Duplicate League function to create the draft league

Continue following directions listed under “Adding Players into the Free Agent Pool” below.

If the draft league is to be comprised of players from different seasons then follow these steps:

Use the Create League function to create a new league.

Copy all teams that contain the necessary players to this new league. Do this by dragging the team from its original league to the draft league (this does not affect the original league – it just makes a copy and puts it into the draft league).

Continue following directions listed under “Adding Players into the Free Agent Pool” below.

Adding Players into the Free Agent Pool

Select all the teams in the draft league (use shift-click to do this) then use the Release Players function to release all the players on the selected teams into the Free Agent pool.

Delete any unnecessary teams from the league. To do this, first select the Team / Update Teams menu item. Then click on the Team Information button. Select the team to be deleted and click the Delete button.

The ability to host a game in Netplay is dependent on two items: giving your opponent the correct IP address to connect to and having your host computer free of any firewall/security measures that might block your opponent from connecting to you. In addition, if you use a wireless router you will need to setup our port-forwarding properly.

There are three possible firewall/security measures that you might need to disable or configure to properly host a Netplay game:

Windows Firewall. If you have XP or Vista, there is a Windows Firewall available that needs to be turned off. To turn off your Windows Firewall, go to the Control Panel, Network and Internet and you should find an option to access the Windows Firewall there.

3rd Party Software Firewalls. Any software firewalls like Norton Security, McAfee Security and Zone Alarm, etc. need to be disabled or turned off. Open your respective software and follow directions for disabling or exiting that software.

Hardware Firewalls. Any Wired/Wireless router and some combination modem/routers will have hardware firewalls built into them. These cannot be disabled or shut off. You will need to contact the manufacturer of your hardware and inquire about Port Forwarding. You need to Port Forward port # 6501 to allow the Netplay connection to pass through your hardware firewall security.

Wireless Routers can cause difficulty in playing all PC-based internet games. That is because when a message is sent to your game from your opponent’s machine, it gets delivered to the wireless router, which then needs to forward it on to your PC. The mechanism to do this is called “port forwarding.” Every router has its own instructions for defining port forwarding, so the particular method of doing this for any given router is beyond the scope of the technical support that we offer. However, there are good resources available on the internet that will help guide you through the process of setting up port forwarding for you router. We recommend that visit http://portforward.com to determine the steps to setup your wireless router for Netplay.

Player pictures can easily be assigned for each player. These pictures can appear during the game (see League Options), and will also appear in the player's notebook.

To assign a player picture you simply need to place his picture in the appropriate folder:

For Skaters - put the pictures in Player\Players folder (located inside the game folder). For Goalies - put the pictures in the Player\Goalies folder.

The file name should have an underscore between the first and last name. For example, a picture for Shawn Bates could have the name: "Shawn_Bates.jpg"

For best results the player image should be 90 wide by 135 high or 100 wide by 150 high. The file format and extension name should be .jpg or .bmp. We recommend jpg format because this will save space on your hard drive, especially if you are using a large number of player pictures.

In some cases you might have two players or two goalies with the same first and last name. In that case you can use the "alias.txt" file to allow for separate pictures for each player. An example is shown in the "alias.txt" file that is shipped with the game. Use an "S" in the first postion for skaters and a "G" in the first position for Goalies.

The program will strip all periods out of the names before creating the file name to be searched for. As an example, "Martin St. Louis" has the period stripped out to make "Martin St Louis". Then all spaces are converted to underscores to make "Martin_St_Louis". Then the file extension (".bmp" or ".jpg") is appended to determine the final name to be searched. In this case it would be "Martin_St_Louis.bmp" or "Martin_St_Louis.jpg".

Do to the install procedures, very difficult to do. I do not get too many situations like this and those that do I just reset instead of explaining it. You would have to remove your current activation, install the old version, remove the old activation, repeat for each version you need to recover.

It is easier in this situation to just move the new game and do a normal upgrade. Backup your new league, remove your authorizations for the newer version of the game and then install your new game like a normal upgrade install over the older version. It is easier to move one new item instead of all your older ones.

A. Yes! As anti-virus and other security programs continue to evolve they often use more generic signatures or heuristic-based detection to search for threats. This sometimes causes false positives. If a false positive is detected when scanning our software certain program files or DLLs might be removed or quarantined. If you are running any sort of security program you might need to create an exception for our programs or DLLs if they are flagged in such a manner.

Since there are so many different security programs, and because they vary greatly, we cannot explain how to create an exception for each product. You will need to determine which security programs you are running and then you will need to find out how to create exceptions when needed. We recommend that you do a search of the Internet similar to this: "how to create an exception with AVG Antivirus" (of course, substitue the name of your security tool for "AVG Antivirus" in the search string).

Important - You may need to reinstall our software after defining your exceptions.

No knowledge of the Strat-O-Matic board game is necessary in order to enjoy our computer game. Of course if you do have previous experience in playing the board game you will have a head start, but everything that is needed to understand and enjoy the computer game is included with your purchase.

Our software is Window 7 and Window 7 64 bit compatible. However, please check the notes below that pertain to the Windows Vista operating system.
***IMPORTANT*** DO NOT INSTALL THE GAME TO THE “PROGRAM FILES” FOLDER IN VISTA OR WINDOWS 7! Vista and Windows 7 do not allow you to write data to this folder (instead it uses a virtual folder when you try to write data there). Besides being confusing, this causes problems with our game.
The game must be installed with a user sign-on that has administrator privileges. This will allow the DLLs to be registered properly.
Also, when installing you might see an “Unknown Publisher” warning message. If so, you should click “Run” to proceed.
Vista™ no longer supports Winhelp, which our program uses. You can download the Winhelp viewer for Vista™ at the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82148
Windows 7™ no longer supports Winhelp, which our program uses. You can download the Winhelp viewer for Windows 7™ at the following link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=258aa5ec-e3d9-4228-8844-008e02b32a2c

INTRODUCTION
The Strat-O-Matic computer basketball game is a based on the popular Strat-O-Matic board game. The best parts of the board game (the individual ratings and the realistic manner in which they interact) have been retained and we’ve added some nice embellishments to the computer version. We believe you will find that no other game on the market captures the feel of basketball the way that Strat-O-Matic does.

If, after playing this game, you have any comments or ideas for improving on it please drop us a line. We are committed to improving all of games with your help.

GETTING STARTED
Strat-O-Matic Computer Basketball is a multifaceted game with many options and features. If you are new to the world of Strat-O-Matic and just want to get started quickly you should follow these steps:

1. You will play the game better and enjoy it more if you understand the ratings system. The ratings system is the same one that is used with the board-game cards. Even if you don’t plan to use the cards, you will want to understand the ratings system employed by the game.

2. If you are playing a nonleague game, no stats will be saved. When you play your first league game you will be able to view statistics.

3. You can accept the defaults for most of the items shown in the menus when you start a game.

4. Don’t worry about messing things up! You can always re-install the software. Also each season can individually be restarted, which simply erases all statistics accumulated to date for that league.

TUTORIAL
Please refer to the Help File’s “Getting Started” section for a tutorial that will guide you through playing your first game.

After installing a program or add-on, the game will automatically prompt you for an authorization code the first time you try to use that game or add-on. When the screen request comes up, make sure you are online, then simply enter your code into the box and click the OK button to complete your activation.

Your File menu will have 2 choices, Remove Game Authorization or Remove Season Authorizations. When removing your codes, you should always remove your add-on authorizations first, then your game authorization last.

To Remove Season Authorizations, click the menu choice, type in the season year and click the remove button. Enter or your product code and click OK. Repeat this step for each add-on product that you have installed and need to remove.

To Remove Game Authorization, click the menu choice and enter your product code and click OK.

Our activation system allows you to actively install a product on only one computer at any time. You can remove and transfer your authorizations as often as you need to, but you can only have it active with one computer at a time.

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you access a game or add-on for the first time, the program will request your authorization code. Enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your User Code and the URL of the activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and you will need to enter your product code and user code to submit. Once submitted, you will receive an activation code back. Write this code down and take it back to your Manual Transfer screen and enter it into the box there to complete your activation manually

If you do not have any internet access, you will have to use the Manual Transfer option. When you click on either the Remove Authorization menu option, enter the code in the box provided and click the button labeled Manual Transfer. On the Manual Transfer screen, make note of your Removal Code and the URL of the de-activation web page. Go to a computer with internet access, open the listed webpage URL and you will need to enter your product code and removal code to submit. Once submitted your authorization will be removed completely.

Note: Even though your game screen will note that the authorization has been removed successfully, the removal process will not be complete until your go to the deactivation webpage and complete the process.

If you are using the Manual Transfer registration procedure, your user, activation and removal codes are all temporary numbers. Do not save these codes for future use. Each time you install a product, new user, activation and removal codes will be generated. The only code that will never change is the actual product code from your registration card.

Note: Each product will have unique user codes. If you are installing multiple products (for example, a game plus season rosters) you must complete the Manual Transfer step for each product. Each product will have a unique user, activation or removal code.

Yes, some products may be activated by product code or by one of our older floppy product disks. If this option is available, you will see a button labeled “Diskette Transfer” on the Authorization window. If you have a disk product, click the Diskette Transfer button and the game will prompt you to insert your floppy disk.

Note: If your floppy disks no longer work, or you have a computer with no floppy drive, then here is our Disk Exchange Policy: If you have an old 3.5” season diskette that fails you can exchange it for a Product Code card for a $2 replacement fee, per diskette. Mail back the diskette(s) and enclose $2 per diskette. We will ship back to you the replacement Product Code card(s).

As of 12/31/2010 this program has closed and we are no longer accepting disk exchanges

Unfortunately the registration card is your record of the product code. Both the documentation and registration card itself explain that you should protect card. It is the only record of your registration.

If the registration card has been physically lost, a replacement registration code would need to be purchased. Please contact the company at 1-800-645-3455 to inquire about replacement product codes

Should you receive this error message, you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

If you have lost an authorization due to hard drive failure and you are not able to play the game (or seasons) then you will need to contact Technical Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset. They will help you get back up and running.

Invalid product code means that you are either entering a code for a different product than requested, or you have entered your code incorrectly. Verify which code the game screen is requesting. If you have the right code, you should verify the letters and numbers within the product code. All SOM product codes are 16 characters and have 7 letters and 9 numbers.

A firewall/security program is interfering with the transfer of the registration information. You should temporarily shut off the program to complete the registration process. If you are unable to turn off your firewall/security software you will need to use the Manual Transfer registration process to work around this issue

Should you receive an Authorization Corrupted message you will need to have your product codes reset. Please contact SOM Support at techsupport@strat-o-matic.com with the subject “Reset Request” and request a product code reset.

To install additional season rosters, insert your game CD-ROM and run the main installation program. On the main install screen where you can install the game, you will also find a series of buttons and checkboxes which will allow you to select any add-on season rosters for installation.

You can create a postseason league by using the League menu and Create New League feature. Once you have created a new postseason league, you can copy your playoff teams from your regular league into it by using the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To copy a player or team from one league to another, select the player or team with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the league you wish to copy them to on your league list.

Click on and highlight your league and go to the League menu and select Schedule Maintenance. The lower right corner of the screen should have a button labeled “Generate.” Click this button and fill in the schedule parameters.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To copy a player or team from one league to another, select the player or team with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the league you wish to copy them to on your league list.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To trade a player from one team to another, select the player with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the team you wish to trade them to on your team list.

The main program screen uses the drag-and-drop functionality of your mouse. To release a player or select the player with your mouse, hold the button down and drag to the Free Agents at the top of your team list.

1. Create a League. This can be done with either the Create a League function or with the Duplicate League function. You should use Create a League if you want all the teams in the draft league to use the same standardized team defensive card. You should use Duplicate League if each team is going to have a real-life team’s defensive card. If you use Duplicate League, then skip steps 2 through 5 since all the players and teams will be in the league already.

2. Use the “Create Team” function to copy the team from the “D” league into your new league. You will need to provide a team name and other information about the new team you are creating with the copy function.

3. Drag and drop players from the original league into your draft league. This will place them in the free agency pool. You can drag them from there onto any team you desire.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each team you wish to add to your draft league.

The ability to host a game in Netplay is dependent on two items: giving your opponent the correct IP address to connect to and having your host computer free of any firewall/security measures that might block your opponent from connecting to you. In addition, if you use a wireless router you will need to setup our port forwarding properly.

There are three possible firewall/security measures that you might need to disable or configure to properly host a Netplay game:

Windows Firewall. If you have XP or Vista, there is a Windows Firewall available that needs to be turned off. To turn off your Windows Firewall go to the Control Panel, Network and Internet and you should find an option to access the Windows Firewall there.

3rd Party Software Firewalls. Any software firewalls like Norton Security, McAfee Security, and Zone Alarm, etc. need to be disabled or turned off. Open your respective software and follow directions for disabling or exiting that software.

Hardware Firewalls. Any Wired/Wireless router and some combination modem/routers will have hardware firewalls built into them. These cannot be disabled or shut off. You will need to contact the manufacturer of your hardware and inquire about Port Forwarding. You need to Port Forward port # 6501 to allow the Netplay connection to pass through your hardware firewall security.

Wireless Routers can cause difficulty in playing all PC-based internet games. That is because when a message is sent to your game from your opponent’s machine it gets delivered to the wireless router, which then needs to forward it on to your PC. The mechanism to do this is called “port forwarding.” Every router has its own instructions for defining port forwarding, so the particular method of doing this for any given router is beyond the scope of the technical support that we offer. However, there are good resources available on the internet that will help guide you through the process of setting up port forwarding for you router. We recommend that visit http://portforward.com to determine the steps to setup your wireless router for Netplay.

Player pictures can easily be assigned for each player. These pictures can appear during the game (see League Options), and will also appear in the player's notebook.

To assign a player picture you simply need to place his picture in the appropriate folder:

Put the pictures in Players folder (located inside the game folder).

The file name should have an underscore between the first and last name. For example, a picture for Channing Frye could have the name: "Channing_Frye.jpg"

For best results the player image should be 90 wide by 140 high or 140 wide by 220 high. The file format and extension name must be .jpg.

You may want to have different pictures for players by year. For example, you can create a folder called "2004" which would contain player pictures for the 2004-05 season. If the program finds a matching picture in the 2004 folder for a player (who's actual season was 2004-05) then it will use that picture. Otherwise it will search the main Players folder for a matching picture. If no picture is found for the player then the "default.jpg" image will be shown for him.

The program will replace all periods with underscores before creating the file name to be searched for. As an example, "T.R. Dunn" becomes "T_R_ Dunn". Then all spaces are converted to underscores to make "T_R__Dunn" (notice there are two undercores before the D). Then the ".jpg" file extension is appended to determine the final name to be searched. In this case it would be "T_R__Dunn.jpg". As another example, for "Linton Johnson III" the program will look for "Linton_Johnson_III.jpg".

It is easier in this situation to just move the new game and do a normal upgrade. Backup your new league, remove your authorizations for the newer version of the game and then install your new game like a normal upgrade install over the older version. It is easier to move one new item instead of all your older ones.